the number of Law School credit hours earned for successful completion

Title

Code

Faculty

Quarter and Year

Key

Description contains

Criminal Law

LAWS 30311- 01(3)1L, a

This course, offered over two sequential quarters, addresses the doctrines of criminal liability and the moral and social problems of crime. The definitions of crimes and defenses are considered in light of the purposes of punishment and the role of the criminal justice system, including police and correctional agencies.
The student's grade is based on class participation and a single final examination at the end of the Spring quarter.

Criminal Law

LAWS 30311- 01(3)1L, a

This course, offered over two sequential quarters, addresses the doctrines of criminal liability and the moral and social problems of crime. The definitions of crimes and defenses are considered in light of the purposes of punishment and the role of the criminal justice system, including police and correctional agencies.
The student's grade is based on class participation and a single final examination.

Criminal Law

LAWS 30311- 02(3)1L, a

This course, offered over two sequential quarters, addresses the doctrines of criminal liability and the moral and social problems of crime. The definitions of crimes and defenses are considered in light of the purposes of punishment and the role of the criminal justice system, including police and correctional agencies.
The student's grade is based on class participation and a single final examination at the end of the Spring quarter.

Criminal Law

LAWS 30311- 02(3)1L, a

This course, offered over two sequential quarters, addresses the doctrines of criminal liability and the moral and social problems of crime. The definitions of crimes and defenses are considered in light of the purposes of punishment and the role of the criminal justice system, including police and correctional agencies.
The student's grade is based on class participation and a single final examination.

Criminal Procedure I: The Investigative Process

LAWS 47201- 01(3)x

The course focuses on the constitutional law regulating searches, seizures, and confessions. It considers both physical searches and seizures and also searches and seizures of electronic data.
Grades are based on a final examination and class participation.

Criminal Procedure III: Further Issues in Criminal Adjudication

LAWS 49701- 01(3)

We will cover a variety of criminal procedure topics not addressed elsewhere including: double jeopardy and criminal collateral estoppel, appellate review standards, and joinder. We will also cover in depth post-conviction review and federal habeas corpus proceedings, which is especially beneficial to those students with or interested in judicial clerkships.

Cross-Border Transactions: Lending

LAWS 71406- 01(3)l, m, s, x

The worlds of corporate finance and secured transactions law reform interact to make cross-border lending a dynamic, cutting-edge field of law. Due to the rapid globalization of U.S. business, U.S. banks and other lenders are increasingly being asked to finance the international business activities of U.S. middle-market companies, often in countries that have laws incompatible with U.S. secured transactions law. At the same time, the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), the World Bank and other international organizations are actively encouraging developing countries, where access to capital is scarce, to modernize their secured transactions laws to promote the availability of low-cost secured credit for small and medium-sized enterprises as a way of creating jobs, raising standards of living and contributing to a country's overall economic growth and political stability.
This seminar explores both worlds. Students will examine the broad array of legal and practical issues encountered by U.S. lenders as they make loans to foreign companies, obtain security interests in foreign collateral and finance foreign corporate acquisitions. They will also study recent initiatives in secured transactions law reform, and consider how they are exerting a profound influence on cross-border corporate finance in developed as well as developing countries.
Richard Kohn, a founder of the Chicago law firm Goldberg Kohn Ltd., specializes in representing banks in cross-border lending transactions and has been active for over a decade as a member of the Expert Group in the development of various secured transactions law reform texts, including the UNCITRAL Legislative Guide on Secured Transactions. Because cross-border lending touches upon many areas of law, the seminar provides a useful introduction to international commercial transactions in general.
There are no prerequisites.
Grades will be based on a team project involving interaction with lawyers in other countries, a number of short papers, class participation and a take-home exam.

Cross-Border Transactions: Securities, M&A, and Joint Ventures

LAWS 71408- 01(3)l, m, s, x

In this seminar we will examine M&A, securities and financing transactions from a comparative perspective looking at how cross-border transactions vary from purely domestic transactions with a focus on negotiations. We will also look at joint ventures and related concerns for bribery and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The class will focus on recent transactions such as Instagram/Facebook (domestic); Skype/Microsoft (US/Luxembourg), the Mail.ru IPO (Russia/UK), and various other multijurisdictional transactions. The class will feature accomplished guest speakers from legal and business backgrounds. The class will also develop cultural negotiation skills through mock negotiations as well as discussing cultural faux pas and peculiarities across borders.
Substantial out of classroom work, group projects, etc. Each week the students will meet in teams to markup contracts and spend a portion of the subsequent class negotiating the contracts.

Current Controversies in Corporate and Securities Law

LAWS 52202- 01(3)l, m, w, x

This seminar deals with the most important developments in U.S. (and to some extent global) corporate and securities practice during the preceding year. The seminar and discussions provide analysis of the legal, political, and economic implications of these Developments.
Each student submits one paper and gives an oral presentation and analysis of another student's paper.

Current Issues in Criminal and National Security Law

LAWS 70708- 01(3)+, l, m, w, x

This seminar covers a series of current issues in criminal and national security law, often comparing and contrasting the two approaches, with a particular focus on challenges arising from acts of terrorism and other national security prosecutions (including a focus on substantive terrorism offenses, espionage offenses as well as the leaking of classified information), a discussion of criminal and intelligence investigative tools (comparing Title III electronic surveillance with Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act ), application of constitutional principles to terrorism investigations and prosecutions (particularly the First, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Amendments and the application of Miranda, Quarles and Corley decisions and certain state bar rules in that context), the President's war powers and congressional oversight (including discussions of drone strikes, law of war detention, and Presidential and Congressional authority to use military force), and in other select areas, including the Classified Information Procedures Act, and economic sanctions, and national security leaks.
Each class will focus on a different topic, with advance reading assigned around each topic, and grading on the basis of two short reflection papers (3-5 pages each) and a final paper or legal brief (20-25 pages) on a select issue in criminal and national security law.
Guest speakers will help facilitate discussion on certain topics.
Pre-requisites: Criminal Law and Constitutional Law I.

Current Issues in Patent Law

LAWS 78003- 01(2 to 3)l, m, w, x

This seminar addresses current issues in patent law from a doctrinal and policy perspective, such as what constitutes patent-eligible subject matter and why courts have drawn the line for patent-eligible subject matter where they have; statutory and judicial limitations on damages awards, such as apportionment and limitations on damages for foreign harms, including whether those limitations are economically sound; the doctrinal complications that inclusion of patented technology in industry standards introduces; divided infringement and inducement; and the justifications for patent rights (incentivizing innovation, encouraging innovators to publicize their inventions rather than keep them secret, and so on) and whether current doctrines are adequately tied to those justifications.
Enrollment is limited to twenty-five students.
A student’s grade is based on class participation and either a series of short thought papers for two credits, or a series of longer research papers totaling at least 20 pages, or a major research paper, both for three credits.

Drafting Contracts: The Problem of Ambiguity

LAWS 79910- 01(2)l, m, s, x

This seminar is unique. It is a very interesting, very intellectual, and very practical learning experience. The main features are: 1. Students will learn some extremely useful tools for analyzing and drafting contracts. They will acquire them by an inductive process of reviewing many examples of ambiguity from case law, eminent legal scholars, and the lecturer’s practice. They will learn to identify and eliminate ambiguity in drafting contracts. These tools are the creation of the lecturer and will give students unique practical skills that no other American law students (except the lecturer’s prior students) have. 2. The course materials come from the in-house seminars for the firm’s China Practice lawyers that the lecturer conducted for many years as a partner at Baker & McKenzie and that established the profession’s best practices for China-related contracts. 3. The historical examples of ambiguity in the seminar are of human, as well as intellectual, interest. They show that ambiguity can lead to the hanging of an individual for piracy or treason, a damages award of more than U.S. $10 billion, and even a change in the course of World War II. 4. The seminar facilitates student learning. At the beginning of each class, an audience response system (called “clickers”) provides students immediate, comparative, and anonymous feedback on their understanding of the reading assignment. The seminar also allows each student to see what he or she has learned in the class by comparing his or her analysis of a specific contract for the first class and for the last class. This contract analysis, like the final exam, gives each student the experience of a practicing lawyer reviewing a contract.
Grades will be based on a proctored final exam.

Economic Analysis of the Law

LAWS 73201- 01(3)c/l, x

This course introduces the concepts of law and economics. Over the last forty years, economics has become an important tool for those who want to understand the effect legal rules have on the way people behave. This course also explores the extent to which the principles of economics can be used to explain the workings of the legal system itself. The topics covered in this course include the Coase theorem, the choice between property and liability rules, the allocative effects of alternative liability rules (e.g., strict liability versus negligence); the determination of damages for breach of contract; and the economics of legal procedure.
No prior acquaintance with economics or calculus is assumed; the relevant economic concepts are developed through an examination of particular legal applications.
The student's grade is based on a final examination.

Election Law

LAWS 95903- 01(3)

This course examines the law, both constitutional and statutory, that governs the American electoral system. Topics covered include the right to vote, reapportionment and redistricting, minority representation, the regulation of political parties, and campaign finance. The course draws heavily from both legal and political science scholarship. It addresses constitutional provisions including the First, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments, as well as key statutes such as the Voting Rights Act, the Federal Election Campaign Act, and the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act. Students will develop an understanding of not only election law doctrine, but also the theoretical and functional underpinnings of the American electoral system.
The grade is based on a final take-home examination.

Electronic Commerce Law

LAWS 61802- 01(3)l, m, w, x

This seminar focuses on both the technology involved in electronic commerce and the law surrounding the emerging field. Electronic commerce is growing at an exponential rate. As more of our daily commercial lives are lived through use of computers, decisions must be made: will existing law treat e-commerce no differently than any other kind of commerce, or must new laws emerge to take into account some of the radical new transactions and complications? The seminar will begin with an overview of the history and infrastructure of the Internet, setting the groundwork and providing students with a working knowledge of the terminology and technology they will likely encounter working in this legal field. Additional background discussion will involve the concept of regulation of the Internet, global vs. national perspectives on the law of the Internet, and conceptions of sovereignty. Topics will be dictated by the needs of the moment, but will potentially include electronic contracts, digital signatures, the application of traditional UCC doctrines such as the mailbox rule and the statute of frauds to e-commerce, Internet sales of highly regulated goods (such as alcohol, firearms, pharmaceuticals), the domain name system and its relation to trademark law, trade-related issues such as consumer fraud/protection and product disparagement, sales taxation, Internet and business method patents, digital cash/smart cards, digital checks, electronic securities law, Internet gambling, commercial privacy, and e-commerce in gray and black markets. Time permitting, we may also explore the relationship of international law to e-commerce, the effect of e-commerce concepts on commercial litigation, and export control laws involving cryptography.
Enrollment is capped at 20.
Topics not covered in the seminar will be suitable for papers.
There is a short presentation on the same topic as the student's written paper - this counts for 20% of the grade.

Elements of the Law

LAWS 30101- 01(3)1L

This course examines certain issues that occur in many different areas of the law and considers the relationship between these issues and comparable questions in other fields of thought, such as moral and political philosophy, economics, and political theory. The subjects for discussion include the nature of, and justification for, reasoning from precedent; the meaning of such notions as consent, coercion, and voluntary choice; the decision whether to impose rules or allow discretion; the problems of interpreting statutes and other authoritative texts; and the objective or subjective nature of moral judgments.
The student's grade is based on a final examination.

Elements of the Law

LAWS 30101- 02(3)1L

This course examines the role of judges in our legal system, focusing particularly on the processes of statutory and constitutional interpretation. The subjects for discussion include the nature of, and justification for, reasoning from precedent; the meaning of originalism and other methods of interpretation; and the role of history and context in judicial decision making.
The student's grade is based on a final examination.

Elements of the Law

LAWS 30101- 03(3)1L

This course examines certain issues that occur in many different areas of the law and considers the relationship between these issues and related questions in other fields of thought, such as moral and political philosophy, economics, and political theory. The subjects for discussion include the nature of, and justification for, reasoning from precedent; the meaning of such notions as consent, coercion, and voluntary choice; the decision whether to impose rules or allow discretion; the problems of interpreting statutes and other authoritative texts; and the objective or subjective nature of moral judgments.
The student's grade is based on a final examination.

Employee Benefits Law

LAWS 55503- 01(3)l, m, w, x

This seminar will provide an introduction to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and other federal statutes regulating employee benefit plans in the private sector. The seminar will cover many types of plans, including defined benefit pension plans, individual account retirement plans (such as 401(k) plans), medical plans, other welfare benefit plans and executive compensation programs. It will provide a basic understanding of fiduciary standards governing plan administration and the investment of plan assets; minimum standards for benefits and funding; benefit claim dispute resolution procedures and standards of judicial review; federal preemption of state laws; and key issues which arise in ERISA litigation. The seminar is intended for students interested in a broader labor and employment practice; a mergers and acquisitions or general corporate practice; or a civil litigation practice. Although our primary mission will be to prepare students for the practice of law, we also will explore whether the law governing employee benefit plans is operating effectively and in accordance with its stated purposes.
Students will be graded on class participation and on a series of short reaction and research papers.
There are no prerequisites required for this seminar.